Comments on: Can GTD help with too much email volume?

By: Robbie again

Robbie again — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:37:18 +0000

Thanks Kelly! GTD does help with speed, and I will get faster at handling my email. I only meant that I personally have to take it slow until I get the new habit in place. GTD Times has inspired me to slow down to learn a better way to handle email that will soon be faster.

By: John

John — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 17:32:07 +0000

I receive a few newsletters that come either daily, weekly, or monthly. To process those emails I have created rules that move them to a folder named “@To Read”. I can then peruse this folder when I have time and read anything that looks interesting.

I have also used colors in my email inbox to highlight emails that may be more important. I have rules that apply the color when the message arrives. I have different colors for projects that I am currently working on and for emails from my boss. This allows me to quickly process important emails if I only have a few minutes. I can come back later and process the remaining emails.

By: Mark Jantzen

Mark Jantzen — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 14:11:45 +0000

Agree with Robbie’s observations. In my experience that is best way to manage a high volume.

At work I get about 100-300 email messages per day. About 2/3 (maybe more) fall into the “Read – FYI” category. The remaing ones seem to split between actionable, someday and a few in reference.

By: Kelly Forrister

Kelly Forrister — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 23:52:19 +0000

Robbie–great way to put it and certainly the essence of what I was trying to get across. My earlier post explaining the 4D model is really the key in making those decisions quickly and FULLY to completion when they first show up–not weeks or months later when they’ve blown up and the person is complaining about being overwhelmed and declaring email bankruptcy.

By: Josh Freeman

Josh Freeman — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:50:24 +0000

I’ve been using SpamSieve to get rid of my junk mail. Sometimes hundreds of emails a day pass through my server’s inbox without me even seeing them. Every 2 days (or the task gets overwhelming) I scan the sender names in my Spam folder and delete everything but the 2-3 that (rarely) get in there accidentally, or that I actually want to see. Takes about a minute.

By: Robbie

Robbie — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:31:34 +0000

Everyone thinks faster is the answer, but I get my email to zero by slowing down to where I only open and process each email 1 time. For each email I open, I decide what it is, what it means, and process it then and there. When people complain about volume and backlog, I suspect they are not *really* processing their email in GTD terms. They’re opening, not deciding, closing, and moving on to something else. Feels fast, but ultimately it’s slower. So take your time to process once, completely. That’s the way to be more efficient and save time.

By: James

James — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:21:12 +0000

I’m a GTD in hearth and soul, but as I got more effective in my work – I was entrusted with more responsibilities, and more e-mail that came with that, to such a point that I am now receiving hundres of e-mails a day.

They are certainly not all relevant, but keeping my inbox zero became a difficult task once again.

What I’ve implemented now is simple. I check my e-mail twice a day, for 30 minutes. No more, that’s it. Outside of those moments my Outlook is in Offline mode (I still use it for managing my to do list.

And limiting my e-mail reading hours like this is having outstanding effects on my productivity, I wish I thought of it sooner!

Sure, every now and then silly things happen – like I’m the only one who shows up for a cancelled meeting, or I’m a bit late to learn that a certain system is back up, but these are trade-offs I’m happy to make.